By Suraj Singh Attri
At times an applicant, i.e., a company or an individual may decide to file a patent application directly in a foreign country or as an international application under PCT other than in India, without first filing a patent application in India due to various reasons. For instance, the applicant may first file the patent application in the foreign country due to less or no ...

By Manoj Gupta
Arrest provisions under various civil laws have always acted as good deterrence against different kinds of offences. But these powers in the hands of enforcement authorities can also be misused causing not only harassment to genuine law abiding citizens, but also embarrassment to the government. Customs law in India is not very different from any other law, in this regard. In t...

By Vidushpat Singhania
Protection of database and associated rights is gaining traction in India. The vast volume and deluge of data available with the Business Processing Offices in India from jurisdictions which have stringent database protection laws have increased the awareness and need for adequate protection of personal data through domestic legislation or international commitmen...

By Sundar Ramanathan
The Supreme Court in the SAIL judgment [(2010) 10 SCC 744)] decided, inter alia, on the scope of appellate jurisdiction of Competition Appellate Tribunal (“COMPAT”) and this article endeavours to address related matters arising therefrom. When the case was appealed to the COMPAT, it was argued that under Section 53B (1) of the Competition Act, 2002 (hereinafter r...

By Jayaram Sekaran
Introduction
Like any other Intellectual Property Right, industrial design registration protects the rights of the proprietor in his ‘registered design’. In general, an industrial design right is awarded for the aesthetic appeal of an article, which is not purely functional in nature [end note 1]. According to Section 2 (d) of the Designs Act, 2000 (her...

By Bhargav Mansatta
After much furore over opening up of the retail sector to foreign investment, Government of India (GOI) announced its decision to allow FDI upto 51% in multi-brand retail trading under the government route, subject to the terms and conditions as stipulated in Press Note No. 5 (2012 Series) dated September 20, 2012. GOI also allows 100% FDI in single-brand product retail tr...

By Surbhi Premi
In 1997, the Government of India introduced the Voluntary Disclosure of Income and Wealth Scheme, 1997 (VDIS), an amnesty scheme under the direct taxes which unearthed approximately Rs. 33,000 Crores worth of black-money yielding tax revenue of approximately Rs. 10,000 Crores. The amnesty scheme was criticized on the ground that it was discriminative as it gave premium to the ...

By Kapil Sharma and Shivam Mehta
A stable and certain tax regime is sine qua non for gaining investors’ trust. An advance ruling on tax liability of a business proposal is a way by which tax certainty can be ensured. While the foreign investors and select category of other persons are assured in advance of their likely indirect tax liability through the Authority for Advance Rulings (AAR), th...

By Kapil Sharma & Narendra Singhvi
The new regime for taxation of services based on a negative list of services has come into force with effect from 1stt July, 2012. To implement this new regime, certain provisions in the Finance Act, 1994 have been amended and some provisions have been added. A new charging provision viz., Section 66B has been introduced to widen the scope of tax on serv...

By Atul Gupta
Article 5.8 of the Agreement on Implementation of Article VI of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994, commonly known as Anti-Dumping Agreement (ADA), provides for the immediate termination of investigation in an anti-dumping duty case if the margin of dumping is determined as de minimis by the authorities. Article 5.8 further defines the meaning of de minimis dum...

By Ranjan Matthew
Various statutory provisions in the Patents Act, 1970 (the Act) deal with governmental use of patented inventions. To comprehend these provisions better and appreciate different factual situations, it is important to understand the scope of the rights conferred on grant of a patent. Section 47 provides that the grant of patents is subject to certain conditions. This section ...